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Comment Reforms... are they positive? (Score 2) 500

The Huffington Post was live updating the proceedings, and said this:

USA Freedom Act advances 77-17

In a stunning reversal from last week’s drama, the USA Freedom Act was passed by a vote of 77-17. The bill, which passed the House overwhelmingly several weeks ago will now move forward and is likely to receive a final vote on Tuesday.

The bill fell three votes short of the needed supermajority to advance last week but with the clock ticking on controversial provisions of the Patriot Act, supporters of NSA surveillance thought that the proposed reforms were better than letting the program expire entirely.

Rand Paul stated that the Freedom Act will likely get passed on Tuesday.

Wait... did we win or not? Isn't this just a 2-day repreive?

Please note this [1] is one of the bills being proposed (by the sitting Senate Intelligence Chair, no less):

The bill Senate Intelligence Chair Richard Burr released last Friday is bad enough for the way it expanded the existing illegal dragnet. I argued here Burr’s bill would give the Intelligence Community everything they lost in 2009 and 2011. [...]

So think about it - is this just a 2 day reprieve or 2 days so they can rollback more restrictions and make things worse than they are now?

[1] https://www.emptywheel.net/201...

Comment Re:What if I want the ad fueled web to die? (Score 1) 618

There is no right to make a profit. http protocol is displayed by a backend interpretation. I can do what I want with the data I fetch.

In addition I want the concept of ad revenue generated content to die.

Well then you better be concerned because according to TFA, they're going after ad networks but not ads within social networks. How logical is that? All this means is that Google's monopoly will be diverted to Facebook, and the same shit continues, except Zuck gets all the $$.

Comment It's not a failure, this WOsD (Score 2) 143

The War on (some non-patentable, not pushed by Big Pharma) Drugs is a failure.

Ah, but I disagree. Its purpose is manifold, but the two biggies are the erosion of the constitution to keep the prison/security state growing and fed, and the profits of Big Pharma.

This sad state of affairs has been slowly engineered over decades by some very wealthy and influential people as a goal to increase their power and wealth.

It's not a failure - it's a wild success. Sucks that you and I aren't on that list of winners though.

Comment Re:So how does this work? (Score 1) 152

Possibly - but then the best way is just to let any password open the vault.

This is highly undesirable. Even knowing which services I find worthy enough to include in my vault is important. If the attacker knows my gmail, linkedin, or more niche account username, and doesn't see it in the vault, then they will get suspicious.

Comment Sure, defend the asshole (Score 4, Insightful) 776

She probably lied about it.

That's no justification for the employer's action. If your employee doesn't behave properly, you talk with them, maybe put them on performance plan, or maybe terminate their employment.

To talk with another employer to get her fired there is pretty unethical and evidence of douchebaggery.

Comment Honestly... (Score 1) 56

And Sen. Reid is a known opportunist liar.

To be fair, this pretty much describes 95% of the elected critters on Capitol Hill. By using the title "Senator" the rest of your statement was pretty much redundant.

Comment Perspective is what you need (Score 1) 403

For the tiny percent of people who have tattoos that cover all the way down, why would they waste money or resources trying to figure out that last barely 1 percent or less? That makes no sense from a business stand point, on the other hand I totally agree with you on they should have a warning for those people with tattoo. For most, there is still time to return the watch, stop being major cry babies, thats how you let companies know there product has problems, RETURN IT.

So, GM shouldn't have fixed the ignition key problem because it affects even less than your "barely 1%"? And if a laptop design has barely 1% of cpus fail out of the box, that's okay? Or drugs or contaminated food shouldn't be recalled because it only affects barely 1%? Can you change your name from Anonymous Coward to Corporate Shill?

So is the Apple Watch not working with wrist tattoos equivalent to a malfunctioning car, failing laptop, or or contaminated drugs/food? You call the GP commenter a shill. You sounds silly and shrill.

If you have wrist tattoos (my guess is you don't) and the watch doesn't work for you return it. Get some perspective, and buy a Google Wear instead.

Comment Re:TANSTAAFL (Score 1) 171

So I've read that what's happening is the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back". Meaning all this activity only hastened the inevitable; an earthquake. Some geologists have stated that in hindsight, this may actually be a good thing in that it releases stress that would otherwise buildup and cause an even bigger quake at a much later date. Much MUCH later I would think. So I dunno, if a mag 7 goes off, could you really prove who or what caused it though??

Do you have a cite for this? I haven't heard anything like that.

Comment Re:Legislate instead of educate (Score 1) 616

I hate that we have to legislate instead of educate people about vaccinations.

I hate that legislation is allowed to force people into something the state mandates.

There's no mandate. Just a removal of bullshit exceptions to an rule preventing unvaccinated children from attending schools.
Kind of like anti-dumping laws - you don't get to drain your sewer into the streets, just because you don't believe in "government mandated" plumbing.

Comment Companies are full of people (Score 1) 279

companies in the US no longer DESEVE 2 weeks notice. the rules are no longer valid; they won't give YOU notice. don't give them any courtesy they won't give you.

Fact is, while I sure don't have personal relationships with companies, they are full of people that a) I have a working history with, b) can be references for future employment and c) may hire me again (or I may seek to hire them). It's not for the company that you give 2 weeks, it's for your coworkers. And you can, theoretically, just notice the folks who will be impacted by your departure and not your employer, but that's not really workable.

Pretending like you walking out on your coworkers is anything but antisocial is naive. Sure, some coworkers and managers are not going to care because your bridges are already burned, but personally, I've found most of my jobs through people I know and I've helped quite a few folks I know get gigs through connections.

In fact, I really prefer, when I depart, to try to find a replacement for myself - usually someone I know is looking for a gig, and my former employer is glad to get a recommendation from someone they trust.

Comment Google Shopping Express to the rescue (Score 2) 187

The only problem is, most of this stuff is cheaper at Costco — when they are having a sale, one can load-up until next year's sale of the same commodity.

But this seems like it would be darn convenient. So much so, I'm prepared to revisit the price difference. Everyone here is busy and if a single button-press can really replace a trip to the store, it just might be worth it...

Not everyone has room for costco's usual super-sized product packages, I really have no room to store a 6 pack of ketchup, #10 cans of corn, or a 24 pack of paper towels, and many items would expire before I can use them. While I might save money by buying in bulk, without unlimited storage space, I appreciate using Amazon for just-in-time delivery even if I spend a little more money. Plus, as you say, there's the convenience factor -- going to Costco ends up taking at least a few hours from start to finish.

I regularly order 50lb bags of rice, jugs of juice, fruit 10lbs, all using my phone and the delivery person happily hefts it up the walkway to my door, along with a bevy of other items. I don't even have to talk to the guy - he leaves it in my safebox behind my side yard.

Comment Re:Well no shit! (Score 1) 232

Wrong. You can use a deprecated engine which is limited slow and inferior. So all those who want to compete with iOS cannot have a level playing field.

Cite? You can only use webkit on iOS. btw, when you say "competing with iOS" you weaken your argument by way of sounding like a prat.

Comment Re:I just don't care (Score 1) 232

are you a lawyer? care to cite the exact law they are breaking, along with court precedent of a comparable case?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

Google has 70% of the search market. Many companies with much less market dominance have fallen under this act for a much smaller share of the market, because they could exert monopoly power (most likely due to network effects).

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